Footprints in the Sand
by Blonde CiCi
Summary: DHr It wasn’t like the movies, it was painful, and raw, and the most terrible thing somebody can ever endure. Based on real life events. A story of their love, life, and her battle with cancer. Dedicated to everyone who is fighting the battle.


Disclaimer: The plot is mine based on life, the characters are all J.K's

A/N: I know I'm supposed to be working on two other stories but I've gotten busy with school and those stories are giving me problems. I got a little depressed tonight so I decided to write this. It's based on a true story.

_Dedicated in loving memory to Laura London: an amazing mother, daughter, wife, sister, aunt, and friend._

_I will always love and miss you, and make sure your children never forget you._

_October 4__th__ 1976 – August 2__nd__ 2007_

**Footprints in the Sand**

Tears slid down his face as he held her frail hand. She was gasping for breathe, and making small noises of pain that stabbed at his heart. It wasn't like the movies, it was painful, and raw, and the most terrible thing somebody can ever endure.

All of the memories that they had ever shared went through his mind slowly and agonizingly.

They had never been friends. In fact, they had been enemies. He had made fun of her and she gave back as good as she got. It had changed, neither were sure why. Some friends had dragged them both on a trip to Cancun. They were nineteen and living life up. He didn't know it at the time, but they were also celebrating her year free of cancer.

At nineteen, they were all living it up, drinking, dancing, and partying on the beach. Hermione had never seemed to be the type to do any of that, but she surprised him that first night. She had come down from her hotel room in a thin yellow cotton sundress with her hair in short curls. He was sad to say it, but she looked beautiful. It was an amazing night and he couldn't remember ever seeing so many stars in the sky. It was enough to make anyone feel insignificant.

She sidled up to him at the outdoor bar and gave him a shy smile, "Well Draco, since we both seem to have been dragged here, why don't we call it a truce. I want to have a good time here; I've really needed a break."

He was shocked by her proposition, but it made sense. The war had been over for two years by now and old prejudices were slowly being put aside. He nodded his acquiescence.

"Alright. How about a drink? What can I get you?"

"Hmm…how about a sex on the beach?" she grinned mischievously at him and he almost fell off his stool until he realized she was messing with him.

"Well, whatever the lady desires," he grinned back at her. "Bartender! One sex on the beach for m'lady!"

And that's how it started, with one simple sentence of friendship. They talked, and found out they had a lot more in common than they thought. After some lengthy discussions and friendly debated and a mounting number of drinks their friends came to tear them away from their seclusion and join the party. The rest of the night passed in a blur. He remembered dancing barefoot in the sand, wonderful smelling brown curls in his face, a precarious game of volleyball, and her eyes.

The rest of the week passed too quickly for his liking. They spent their days talking, laughing, or just sitting on one another's presence reading. It was comforting and wonderful in a way he had never felt before. The nights were spent drinking and partying with their friends and dancing under the stars.

The last night they were there he was feeling terrible. He never wanted it to end, yet he knew when they went back to England everything would go back to normal. He would go back to working as the head of Malfoy Industries that he had inherited from his father and she would return to work as a wizarding social worker. They would lead their separate lives and this week would fade to a memory.

He asked her to take a walk with him down along the surf. She smiled at him in a knowing way and agreed. They walked for a long time in silence along the surf, leaving deep footprints in the sand. He stopped abruptly and turned to her, searching her face for some sign.

He leaned in and held her face softly with one hand. His lips hovered away from hers, waiting for her to stop him, but she didn't. He kissed her softly, then more urgently. They broke away after what felt like eternity, gasping for breathe.

"Hermione, I know I was never nice to you in the past. I know we barely even know each other, but I've felt something this past week with you, and I don't want it to end. When we go back tomorrow, I don't want things to go back to the way they were. Will you…will you be my girlfriend?" he felt silly asking her. It sounded so immature. He waited for what seemed like forever.

She just kissed him. It was perfect.

Back in England their hurried relationship confused some people and many of their friends didn't agree with it. Ron for instance was a pain in the ass, but Hermione wasn't they type of girl who could be told what to do. "Don't fuck with me," was a saying they were all used to.

She worked as a social worker in wizarding London. It was tough, and she often told him stories about the harassment they put her through, but she loved it anyways. She loved being able to help them whether they liked it at the time or not. He loved to watch her eyes light up as she told a story about really getting through to a kid or being able to help a kid out of a terrible home situation. She was in her element.

She was used to dealing with punk ass kids who'd been through terrible things. It was her fighter spirit and he wasn't surprised when she used that spirit to get her through her second wave of cancer just before her twenty second birthday. For all wizards had cures for, cancer had always eluded them and she went to a muggle doctor. Draco was with her every step of the way.

"It's my life and I'm going to live it the way I want to. I'm not going to let even my own body get me down," he remembered her saying. It was then he realized how much he loved her.

It was tough for her of course, but sometimes it seemed like it was harder on everyone else than on her. She continued to go to work no matter how tired she was, and managed to make jokes about everything. Losing her hair was a blow to her, but she still kept her head up high. No spell seemed to be able to grow it back.

To everyone else she joked about how her head would blind them if they looked at her in direct sunlight and how she'd gotten kicked out of pool halls for confusing the players, but only he saw her cry as she shaved her head. They picked out a beautiful wig but she said it itched so she normally wore different coloured bandanas.

He set up a big celebration for an 'end of treatment' party. He rented a hall and all of her friends and family were there waiting to surprise her. She had always been nosy and had figured it out of course but she hadn't realized the extent of it. There was alcohol and food and games and music. It was an amazing night, and she was glowing from being surrounded by so many people who cared.

He brought out a huge cake and sat her down. The crowd had gone silent and surrounded her in a huge circle. He sat her down in a chair in the middle.

"Hermione, we are all so proud of you. Each and every one of us has been touched by you and made to feel like we are worth so much more than we give ourselves credit for. I've been with you these last two years, and they have been the happiest I have ever had. You have made me into the person I have always wanted to be. I am eternally in your debt. You have shown us all what it means to be strong in the face of adversity and have made us all better people."

He stopped for a second to gather his thoughts and to stop himself from crying.

He knelt down on one knee, "Hermione Jane Granger, I love you, and will always love you. I never want to give you up, and I will always be there for you, through thick and thin. You are the love of my life, will you marry me?"

She only had eyes for him. She tearfully accepted. He pulled out a ring. It was exquisite. It had a silver band with a large diamond in the center and sapphires on either side. She still didn't have any hair, and she was frail with tears pouring down her cheeks, but he thought she had never looked more beautiful.

They moved in together to a small flat in London. He was exuberantly rich but she liked to live in the small apartment, she said it was 'homier'. They were married a little over a year later and life was great.

They still fought like cats and dogs of course, that's just who they were. Draco would tell her when she was being a stuck up bitch and she'd tell him when he was being an arrogant asshole. They'd fight, she'd throw things, he'd storm out, but he'd always come back that night, because that's what they did.

She had a compulsion for things being perfectly neat and in order, and he worked all the time, but they still made it work. They always kept their relationship fun. He loved everything about her, even the stupid little things.

The way she dipped her potato chips in ketchup, and the way she bit her nails when trying to work out a problem. She loved the way he would always forget a couple of things when leaving for work and have to come back to get them, and how he jiggled his leg when he was nervous.

A couple of months after she turned 25 they found out she was expecting. He fainted. She laughed at him.

The months went by in a blur and neither of them felt quite ready. She of course read about a billion baby books and by about the hundredth he just started nodding and smiling when she told him something new she had learned. He quenched his fears about having a baby by buying as much stuff as was humanly possible. When they could barely navigate around the apartment anymore he decided enough was enough and they bought a house.

He laughed at how fat she was getting and she sprayed him with the hose from the sink. She would make him run out at two in the morning because she was having a craving for something like sweet and sour spare ribs and he'd come back to find her eating peanut butter out of the jar or passed back out, but he didn't mind. He didn't think he would ever be able to be happier.

When his daughter was born he realized how mistaken he was. After thirteen hours of labour she finally arrived. Stubborn like her mother, he called her. He retained a bruise for a week from that comment. She was beautiful. She had brown curls like her mother and light blue grey eyes like him. He was right about her being stubborn too, sometimes she'd get a look on her face that was so reminiscent of her mother he almost recoiled. He loved her with all of his heart and they doted upon her like crazy. They named her Mackenzie Elizabeth Malfoy. He took to calling her his little M&M.

Hermione made a wonderful mother as everyone knew she would. She was strict and firm but loving. She delighted in teaching her new things. Unsurprisingly, her first word was 'no', both parents fought over who she inherited that from.

Harry and Ron fought over who should be godfather. Officially, Harry was and Ginny was godmother, but Harry delighted in calling Ron Auntie Ron. It stuck much to his dismay.

Ginny and Harry had a child as well, a little boy named James. Hermione and Ginny enjoyed making up scenarios about James and Mackenzie growing up and falling in love and getting married. Draco just rolled his eyes and stated that no child of his would ever be a Potter. He earned two bruises for that one.

Just a month before her 29th birthday, she had their second child: Joshua Michael Malfoy. Draco was elated, their life was perfect. Oh it was hectic, and they spent a couple of sleepless weeks, but it was amazing. And then disaster struck.

Eight weeks after his birth, Hermione was getting a checkup and they noticed something odd. They soon found out she had breast cancer. She quickly went into surgery. They removed a breast, and she couldn't even pick up her son. It hurt her to her core.

He watched her sit in pain, gazing at her son, and flinch every time her son cried and she couldn't help him. He saw her try and hide tears from their daughter while she explained why she couldn't run around and play with her before.

Friends and family poured in to help play with the kids and help around the house. She smiled and joked with them like before, but he could see the weariness in her eyes this time. She was used to being self sufficient and not being able to be a perfect mother killed her. He tried to help out as best as he could, but he was at a loss of what to say. He would hold her tight at night and pretend he didn't see the tears.

It soon became obvious that the cancer had spread. She had a second surgery, but it didn't help. They put her on chemotherapy and she lost her hair again. She became more and more tired and he could tell she didn't think she'd make it this time. He redoubled his efforts in everything, willing her to fight.

She didn't need his help to fight though, the images of her children haunted her and she gave every ounce of her strength to living for them. He found her crying and locked in her room one day. He asked Ginny about it. She had been there all day and was there most days to help out and to let the children play together.

She looked up at him knowingly, "She tried to get Josh to come to her today and he ran away crying, and came to me instead. She thinks he doesn't love her, and she hates that he doesn't know her."

Draco ran his fingers through his hair. It killed him how much it pained his wife. He gathered his son in his arms and hugged him tight. She was in pain, and there was nothing he could do to help her. It ate him up inside and he needed to DO something, but there was nothing to be done.

She was tired all the time, and they could tell the doctors were starting to lose hope. She wasn't responding to treatment. They took her to every muggle and wizard doctor they could find. They told her it was terminal and she had about six months to live.

She cried in his arms, and he cried as well. What hurt her the most was knowing that her kids would grow up without her. She wouldn't get to help Mac pick out her prom dress, or show Josh how to be a gentleman. She'd miss their first A+ (as of course they would have being her children), their first zit, their first dates, and their weddings.

He didn't think he could live without her. He felt physically ill, he wanted to scream and yell that it wasn't fair, that she had so much more to do. That their children needed her, that he needed her.

Soon she needed to be permanently in a hospital bed. They took her to St.Mungo's where the kids could visit her everyday. Watching Mackenzie try to understand what was going on was heartbreaking. Josh of course, didn't understand and was fascinated with all of the equipment.

He remembered when they told him that she was near the end. He sat with her and held her hand.

Gasping for breathe she made him promise to be okay, and to raise their children well.

"I love you so much. I always have. I know you will be the best dad there ever was, and I know you'll be okay. I wish I could be there with you, we could fight side by side like always, but we'll be together again someday. Always remind them that I love them," she had gasped out in a raggedy breathe. The cancer was in her lungs and she had a hard time breathing.

He couldn't even answer at first; he just shook with sobs and nodded his head.

"I told you before I'd be with you through thick and thin. I love you so much, and I don't know how I'll ever live without you. They will NEVER forget you I swear to you that. I love you…I love you more everyday, I will always love you baby," he sobbed unashamedly.

The next day she was so drugged up that she was unconscious the whole time. Those were the last words they ever said to each other. He watched her suffer silently. It killed him. It hurt him more than any flesh wound ever could, watching her waste away in pain, gasping for each breath she took, but he had to watch. He needed to be with her until the end. She didn't die like they do in the movies, slowly falling away like falling asleep. She was in pain and no amount of potions or drugs could stop it. She finally passed away, and with her a piece of him.

Her funeral and the weeks that followed passed like a blur. He couldn't remember any of it. He was in a daze and nothing anybody did could get him out of it. He lived life by just going through the actions.

One day as he took Mackenzie and Josh to the park with Ginny and her son James a nosy little girl was there following his kids around. Ginny called to Mac to not climb too high and when she didn't listen the other little girl berated her.

"When your mother tells you to do something, you should listen to her!" the little ignorant child scolded.

Mackenzie promptly burst into tears, "She's not my mommy! My mommy is in heaven!"

Her words roused Draco from his stupor and he ran to hold his sobbing daughter.

"You're right baby, you're right. Mommy is in heaven, and she watches over you and is always with you. She loves you soooo much and will always be with us," he rocked her in his arms.

He knew then that life could be okay. That Hermione would live on in his children and that he would tell them about her everyday. It would be hard, and it would be scary, but he would be able to do it. He would love her always, and remember her everyday, and that memory would keep him going because that is what she would have wanted.

'I will always love you' he thought as he held his daughter, 'we will always love you.'

A/N: This really hit home for me and is 90 true with the Harry Potter characters in it so flames really won't be appreciated. Constructive criticism is always welcome though. The title comes from a poem called Footprint in the Sand. Read it, it's beautiful, even if you don't believe in God. Thanks for reading this everyone, and good luck and thanks to everyone who has fought or is fighting cancer. We should all be so strong.

Much Love

CiCi


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